If today's Tuesday, this must be Tulum

I was all for taking a flight from Guatemala City to Cuba.  Luckily Michele prevailed on me  to be a bit more adventurous and take the standard backpacker trail from Lake Atitlan to Cancun, via Semuc Champey, Tikal, Belize and Tulum.  There were times when the thought of spending another eight hours inside a hot overcrowded vehicle began to lose its appeal,  but I am glad we went. 

We raised the average age on the bus by thirty years.  It was neat to travel with young people.  Israeli travellers were the dominant demographic among the backpackers.  They explained that men have to serve for three years in the military, while the women need to serve for two.  Once they were free to resume normal life, many decompressed by travelling, particularly in Latin America.

 

Alfombras:  the Catholic equivalent to Buddhist Mandalas

In San Pedro, the locals were up all night creating these carpets ("Alfombras") out of sawdust, fruit, etc in time for the Good Friday, Stations of the Cross, procession.  Once the procession had trampled the carpet, it was a mess and had to be promptly shoveled into the back of the street cleaning truck.

 

Sayonara to San Pedro

Michele and I had been made very welcome by our respective homestay families.  After seven or so weeks, we were sorry to have to say goodbye.  Here is a picture of my homestay mother Magdalena, her husband Jeremias, and family, from the roof of their house overlooking Lake Atitlan:

I was happy that I also got a picture taken with Clara (Jeremias' mother) because she did not stop working from noon til night.

The women in the town were very religious and very hard working.  The two characteristics are no doubt related.  One of the few times that I ever saw Magdalena relaxed, was in church.  She had her own altar in the house.  Breakfast was sometimes accompanied by the sound of Mass being broadcast live on the tv.  Smiling, she once said that the only time she expected to get some rest, was when she died.

Semuc Champey:  Cord cutting in the jungle

Semuc Champey is famous for its cascade of cataracts and swimming holes set in the heart of the jungle.

However, I have to rather sheepishly admit that I was actually more excited by the abilities of my new Motorola Moto G smartphone. 

$20 bought me a Sim Card with unlimited data for a month.  Using the phone to create a "hotspot" meant that I could post blogs to the web without an internet cable connection in sight.

 

Tikal:  The Young and the "Selfie"

It was only fifty years ago that an archeological team from the University of Pennsylvania hacked back the jungle to expose the ruins of this epic Mayan city.  We stayed in the Jungle Lodge hotel which originally served as the camp for the archeologists.  The place still had the charming casual feel of a safari camp.

Part of the appeal of Tikal was that we had the ruins more or less to ourselves.

These young beautiful Israeli twins caught my eye.  Wherever we went in Tikal, we saw them taking "selfies" on their super duper telescopic selfie stick.  It made me view travel in a totally new light.  In the future, travel will be thought of as just one giant selection of "sets" for selfies.

 

Belize:  Stingrays, Sharks and Hobie Cats

They say its not a great idea to get married on April Fools Day.  Apparently it's an even worse idea to bring your parents in law on honeymoon with you.  Twenty six years ago we broke both precepts and holidayed with Ray and Vivian at the Journey's End hotel in Belize.  We had a great time, but kids do not worry! - we do not necessarily expect to be invited when you get married!  Ray and Vivian brought their sense of excitement and humor, which always made them such good company .  Back in 1989, Belize was not the tourist hotspot that it is today.

Coming back here, we made two mistakes - first we stayed in Ambergris Caye not Caye Caulker, second we stayed in San Pedro rather than further north.  San Pedro (not to put too fine a point on it) is a bit of a dump at the best of times.  This year the general air of dereliction was exacerbated by a freakishly prolonged  infestation of seaweed from the Sargasso Sea.  There was a rotting compost smell coming from those parts of the beach where the owners were less diligent about clearing away the seaweed.

Having said all this, we were lucky enough to stay at the Caribbean Villas hotel.  The friendly staff and intimate set up made us forget any caveats that we might have had.  Ordrius, the Lithuanian sailing school guy, gave me free lessons in a Hobie Cat before he let me sail it.  A lot of my attempted tacks, left me flapping around "in irons" miles from the sea shore.  Fortunately, the only dent was to my pride.

Michele overcame her normal reluctance on such matters, and went swimming with the (nurse) sharks:

 

Tulum:  what happens when you stay at an Italian All Inclusive in Mexico?

We are staying at the Pavo Real all inclusive hotel:

The Italians running the place have flunked all three requirements of a Mexican All Inclusive:

There are no drunkards around for the simple reason that it  takes too long to get to the one bar on site.  You can read your book without having to shut out the noise of Adele yelling "you can have it all", on the camp sound system.  Most weird of all, when you waddle up to the feeding trough, the food actually tastes good!

Better enjoy the good food now - Cuba up next!

Two Ethical purchases for the well heeled

1.  Shade Grown Coffee

I tend to be a bit of an agnostic when it comes to a lot of environmental issues, but this one seems pretty compelling.

I became aware of the issue, when we were staying at the Lake Atitlan Nature Reserve Hotel.  The thesis is quite simple.  There's organic coffee.  Now there is "Shade Grown Coffee".  The two concepts overlap.

Here is a picture of a monkey in the grounds of the hotel.  This monkey is actually moving around in a working coffee plantation.  The coffee grows in the shade of a diverse range of trees.  These trees preserve bird corridors, counter soil erosion and improve the chemical balance of the soil.

Of course there is going to be a lot of "shady" business when vendors label their coffee as "shade grown" - but hell you have to start somewhere! 

Here is a website of an organization that sells Shade Grown Coffee:

http://www.groundsforchange.com/learn/shadegrown.php

 

2.  Mercado Global's Mayan Handbags

I am not an expert when it comes to handbags, but I would like to believe that this particular line of rather expensive bags are a good thing in more ways than one.

I had never heard of these bags until we spent a very crowded eight hour bus journey to Semuc Champey, sitting next to Ines Tamaddon of Mercado Global.  She is working for next to nothing as a fund raiser based out here in Panahachel.  Here is her picture taken from the company's website (http://www.mercadoglobal.org/collections ).

Inez was pretty eloquent in the way she described the approach of this NGO.  The idea is to build a bag that is original and requires exquisite craftsmanship.  This way they can charge more for the bag, and consequently pay more to the ladies who make them.

Canadians can buy the bags from Holt Renfrew.  Here's a link to a full list of the retailers carrying the bags http://www.mercadoglobal.org/pages/retailers .

Guatemala: This god's got it good!

The Mayan alcohol taboo

The Mayans' relationship with alcohol is very different to that of the free drinking Gringo tourists.  As a tourist, you almost never see a local imbibing.  The one time I had a couple of beers in my homestay, I had to use my backpack to smuggle the incriminating cans in and out.

The few times you do see someone the worse for wear, they are all male, and lie unconscious and ignored, by the side of the road.  The first time Michele and I saw this, we thought we were at the scene of a fatality.
 

Maximon: one lucky god

 

In this light, the Mayan relationship with the god/idol called Maximon is kind of interesting.  His worship belongs to a group of practices labelled "syncretism".  The Catholic Church does not sanction devotions to him.  Nevertheless he receives lavish offerings of cigars, firewater and beer from otherwise devout Catholics. 

 

You can find out more about Maximon at this Wikipedia link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim%C3%B3n

 

We encountered the god on our afternoon trip to Santiago de Atitlan.  He is moved to a different house each year.

His current home has more empty beer bottles stacked outside than most bars.  Even more remarkable is the sight of women holding cans of beer. 

Michele needed to pay them to take photographs.  The act of actually paying them, was the occasion for uproarious mirth among the ladies (the gringos must be crazy?).

 

My picture of the same scene features the god himself together with devotees of both sexes in various states of inebriation:

 

Maximon himself is holding up pretty well, given all the liquor that has literally been poured down his throat and into a receptacle at his back.

 

The same room contained sacred icons that you normally associate with Semana Santa:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guatemala vs Cuba: which country is "happier"?

This question was prompted partly by the fact that we have visited both countries this year, and partly by the fact that the two countries have had such different histories.

Of course there is no definitive way to measure an intangible quality like happiness.  However there are some pretty tangible indicators (income, infant mortality, homicide rate and literacy) which could be expected to have a material impact on a normal person's happiness.

Using these tangible indicators, it is amazing how one sided the comparison is - starting off with incomes as reported by the CIA:

Just about everybody in Cuba is able to read

Cuba's homicide rate is comparable to Chile - a country with nearly double  the per capita income

The infant mortality rate in Cuba speaks to the strength of its healthcare system.  In fact, medical care is a significant source of foreign currency for the country.

You could argue that this is an unfair comparison - that Cuba is simply a richer country - always was, always will be. 

One way to address this argument is to compare "Happiness" outcomes against incomes.  The intuition behind this, is simply that you would expect wealthier countries to be able to offer better health care, education etc.

The above chart builds on this intuition.  The X axis is simply per
capita income.  The Y axis is a custom Happiness Index which assigns an equal weight to Literacy, Homicide Rate and Infant Mortality.  The dots above the line represent those countries delivering better outcomes than you might expect given their income levels.  You can see that Cuba is punching way above its income weight. 

There may be the odd reader who thinks I am "cooking the books" to show the Cuban government in a good light.  For that reason I have also highlighted how Venezuela is experiencing much worse outcomes than you would expect given income levels in that country, despite the similarity with Cuba in terms of official ideology.

Guatemala: Is life getting any better?

The normal response for a foreigner wanting to get involved with Guatemala's many development challenges is to pick up a hammer and build something.   People who know me, know that I cannot be trusted to do anything remotely handy.  So I have had to settle for building spreadsheets instead - no judgements please!

Backing up, where the heck is Guatemala?

Things have been a bit quiet with Michele away, luxuriating in decadent Victoria.  I have had enough time on my hands to trawl through the databases of the World Bank, the IMF and the CIA World Factbook, with a view to answering some questions that I had.  For instance, as a glass half full kind of person, I was curious to know if life was actually getting any better in this country.

Conditions remain difficult in many ways:

Guatemala is still one of the most unequal countries on the planet

Family planning is slow to make headway in a traditional, impoverished country, like Guatemala.  The country's population has risen four fold in the last fifty years:

Thirty per cent of the population have to try and get by on US$2 a day:

The homicide rate is terrifying if you work as a journalist or bus driver, or if you live in Guatemala City.

 

However some things are actually improving:

Military spending has come down:

Inflation is down

Incomes are rising slowly - albeit from a very low level

Increased rates of literacy are testimony to improvements in the education system:

Similarly the dramatic decline in the rate of infant mortality speaks to a healthier population and better health care provision

Finally, fewer children are actually going hungry

Pub Quiz Night in Guatemala's Margaritaville

There is not a lot to do here in San Pedro.  San Pedro is located on the shores of Lake Atitlan.  Gringos come here for the wonderful climate, friendly people and cheap booze:

As you can see it's Happy Hour pretty much all of the time (Q8 is equivalent to US$1).  Many of the older gringos are happy to pass their days in a gentle alcoholic haze.

Such was the competition for our first and only Pub Quiz Night.  To make it even more unfair, we got teamed up with a Third Grade teacher which was pretty much perfect, given the level of the questions. 

It was hard to tell who was more out of it, the Quiz mistress or the patrons.  Here are a couple of the Quiz mistress's model answers:

Question:  Name the prehistoric monument located in the county of "Wilshere"?
Official answer:  Stonehinges

Question:  Who wrote "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times"
Official answer:  Charles Dixon

And here is one of the contestant's answers:

Question:  Who was "La Giaconda"
Contestant's answer:  Margaret Thatcher

Guatemala: Miercoles de Ceniza (Ash Wednesday) notes

Since Cuba in January (no internet, no blog, but highly recommended), our travels have taken us to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

At this time of year (the dry season), the views of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes (not to mention Michele!) are reliably spectacular:

 

 

1.  San Pedro Spanish School

Michele and I are three days into studying at the San Pedro Spanish
School (http://www.sanpedrospanishschool.org/ ).  Even though it feels in vaguely poor taste, honesty compels me to mention that studying at the school is incredibly good value:  US$120 for a week (20 hours) of private tuition on idyllic wooded slopes overlooking Lake Atitlan.  Here is a picture taken from their web site:

My tutor (he's 33) has the drive the drive to overcome all odds with his student, and the patience to gracefully tolerate constantly repeated errors.

The school arranges homestays at a cost of US$100 a week for a clean room with an en suite, great wifi and three full meals a day.  Michele and I are staying with separate families so as to maximize exposure to the Spanish language.  At these rates, it feels like exploitation.  However my homestay family has gone to considerable expense to build new rooms.  I imagine they would not have done so, if it was not worthwhile financially.

The family consists of the 38 year old dad, 37 year old mom and three children: girl 20, boy 18, and boy 6.  In her capacity as cook, the poor Mom is lumbered with trying to teach me a little Spanish at every meal.  The rest of the family seem to run some sort of shift system to lighten her load when it comes to having stultifyingly  limited conversations with the stuttering gringo.

2.  Volunteer opportunities at Ninos del Lago Community school

The icing on the cake is that even at its very modest prices, the language school manages to support the nearby Ninos del Lago community school (http://www.ninosdellagosanpedro.org/index.html ) .

Even better, they welcome dilettante would be volunteers like me.  The kids are very patient with my linguistic ability. 

All the inventiveness that Michele brings to Teaching English as a Second Language has proved very useful in keeping the kids engaged during our scheduled Art slot.

 

3.  Misa Miercoles de Ceniza

My homestay hostess very kindly invited me to the Ash Wednesday Mass.  The Mayans are very religious.  Their religious loyalties are split roughly 50/50 between the Roman Catholic church and the very numerous, very beguiling, "happy clappy" Evengelical faiths. 

Given my Roman Catholic upbringing, there was something oddly familiar and comforting about the service despite the exotic location - the interminable length of the service, the crying babies, the kids that could not sit still, and the general air of distraction.

But there were of course differences.  Out of an estimated congregation of 600, I was one of only 5 non Mayans.  Mayans are not the tallest of people.  When I stood up, I had the odd feeling of being on a podium as I looked around.  Some of the mass was said in the local Tz'utujil language.  The adult women covered their heads with their wedding shawls. The  shawls are hand woven and take months to make.
 

 Many of the readings and prayers were read out by teenage girls in bright traditional costumes.  The hymns were sung in a pleasing, measured manner.

 Even if I could understand Spanish, I would not be qualified to judge whether the Catholic church is part of the solution or the problem in these parts.  I will limit myself to two observations:

In today's sermon the priest referenced Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980 while offering mass in San Salvador, after speaking out against the country's death squads.

The priest mentioned Pope Francis during the service and there
was a huge picture of the pontiff in the church.  I have not taken the time to find out how far the church's position on contraception has moved under Pope Francis.  What I can say is, that if there was one country that would benefit from a favorable stance towards birth control, it would be Guatemala.  According to the "Wings" non profit's website (http://www.wingsguate.org/what-we-do/why-guatemala ) more than 40% of the population is under 15 years old, and indigenous women in Guatemala average 6.2 children each.